"A Brief Introduction to Kentucky Mountain Literature" by The Eastern Kentucky Education Association--Book Review

Recently, I strayed into and bought a rare copy of this little thirty-two page pamphlet from 1948 which was compiled and published by the classroom teachers of the Eastern Kentucky Education Association.  Books like this which are originally published in small printings and in pamphlet form rarely survive.  I found it in the tail end of a large estate, part of which had been bought from the executor by a friend of mine who is in the antique business. (I told that friend and I am telling all of you: "Do Not Put Glued Stickers On Vintage Or Antique Books, Pamphlets, Posters, Photos Or Art Works.")  It is highly unlikely that any of my readers will ever see a physical copy of this piece.  If you do find one that is not already in a library or the collection of someone who will protect it and pass it on, then you should buy it, protect it, and make arrangements for it to be placed in a library special collections department when you no longer have a use for it.  I would go so far as to even suggest that if you find it you should place it in the Special Collections of the Allara Library at the University of Pikeville.  

Now, back to the literature in the book itself.  A committee of four people is listed in the foreword as having been in charge of the arrangements: Chairman William M. Justice of Hellier, KY; Dorothy Lewis of Sandy Hook, KY; Eula Norris of Ashland, KY; and, Margaret Preston of Ashland, KY.  It is highly probable that the works by some of the authors presented could be the only extant publicly available examples of their work.  The most notable writers to be included are James Still; Jean Thomas, the Traipsin' Woman; J. T. Cotton Noe, a former poet laureate of Kentucky and a professor at the University Of Kentucky; and Jesse Stuart.  I have chosen to include a full list of contributors to this work since it is likely that some of them may not have publicly available works in any other setting or format.  If you recognize a writer and have been unable to access their works, send me a message on my public e-mail account at rchicks@mrtc.com and I would gladly scan and send those works to you with the understanding that they would be handled under strict observance of copyright law.  The full list of names of contributors is as follows: William M. Justice; Bess V. Smith; A. A. Page; Mrs. Edgar R. Mays; Mark Hager; Ruby Dell Baugher; Truda McCoy; Rosa Messer Bradley; Jean Thomas; James Still; Sylvia Trent Auxier; Madge Ann Pinson; S. D. Osborne; Evalena Gilbert Spears; Woodridge Spears; J. T. Cotton Noe; Jesse Stuart; and Nancy P. Turner.  I sincerely hope at least one of you finds a writer here whose work you have been trying to locate and save.

From my point of view, the most important and informational piece of writing in the book is that by Jean Thomas, The Traipsin' Woman, of Ashland, KY.  I must confess that I knew who she was and that she had been an important musicologist who collected and preserved folk songs in the Appalachian Region.  But I had never read her works, done research about her, or written about her in my work about the Big Sandy River and its influence on American culture.   I promise my readers that I will correct those mistakes in the near future.  Jean Thomas was born in Ashland, KY, and lived the great majority of her life there until her death at the age of 100 in Ashland.

Jean Thomas, "The Traipsin' Woman"--Photo by the Thomas Family

Jean Thomas had grown up as Jeanette Mary Francis de Assisi Aloysius Narcissum Garfield Bell in Ashland, Kentucky.  She eventually had a brief marriage which produced no children, traveled America and, perhaps, the world until she went to work as a traveling court reporter in Eastern Kentucky where she became fascinated by the folk ballads and singing styles of the Appalachian mountaineers whom she met in the court house towns.  She went on to found the American Folk Song Society and the American Folk Song Festival which took place at Carter Caves State Park from about 1932 until 1972.  It is a real tragedy that neither the American Folk Song Society or the festival have survived to help perpetuate the unique balladry, the Appalachian balladeers, and the early folk songs which traveled with our ancestors from the British Isles.    But Jean Thomas did write several books which are now hard to find on used book sites and no longer in print.  If you find copies of her books, buy them, preserve them, and pass them on when you die.  They are a major part of the work Jean Thomas devoted her life to in an attempt to preserve this wonderful set of Appalachian cultural assets. 

William M. Justice is also an interesting member of this group.  The personal papers of his daughter, Alice Justice Kinder are in the aforementioned Special Collections Department of the University of Pikeville.  The description of her papers on their website contains this biography of William M. Justice:

"William McKinley Justice was a product of the eastern Kentucky mountains into which he was born on November 27, 1893. Although he did not attend school until he was a teenager and did not receive his high school diploma until his mid-twenties, William Justice thirsted not only for personal knowledge, but to educate others in the mountains as well. A tireless promoter for Pikeville College, her traveled to a number of cities in the mid-west and north to raise money for the local school and help educate the youth of eastern Kentucky. Graduating from Berea College in 1929, Justice spent the next thirty years educating the youth of Pike County. From 1940-1959, Justice served as the principal at Hellier High School.
Justice loved the written word, and published five volumes of poetry. Named a Kentucky Colonel in 1968, Justice had the honor of having one of his poems read by Adlai Stevenson before the United Nations Assembly. He also penned an unpublished biography which was later finished by Alice Kinder and published in Willie-Boy and The Call of the Kentucky Mountains. William McKinley Justice died on July 22, 1968, at seventy-four years of age." (Special Collections Department, University Of Pikeville)

The Jesse Stuart story which is included in the book is "A Penny's Worth Of Character" which is arguably the best known of his half dozen or so children's books which are still being published and sold by the Jesse Stuart Foundation.   It appears to have been an earlier or abridged version of that well known story and there is no notation concerning any previous publication. 

The essay "Our Beloved Hills" by Mrs. Edgar R. May of Langley, Kentucky, in Floyd County addresses the issue of prejudice toward Appalachians and is quite interesting for the time.  It begins: "Much has been written about Eastern Kentucky, but generally only the dark side is seen in print.  While it is true that many undesirable conditions do exist here, progressive citizens have a right to resent being judged by the lowest classes in the mountains.  This is no less unfair than if the slums of cities were regarded as typical of urban life."  While this opening does not clearly defend these "...lowest classes in the mountains...", it does go on the remainder of the essay and make several good points in defense of Appalachian people and addresses some of the negative aspects of the discrimination which has been prevalent against Appalachians for at least a hundred years. 

I know I am repeating myself but if you stray into a copy of this little book buy it, keep it, protect it, and pass it on to someone or some institution which will preserve it for the future researchers into Appalachia and Eastern Kentucky. 

"Raft Tide and Railroad How We Lived and Died" by Edwina Pendarvis--Book Review

Pendarvis, Edwina. Raft Tide And Railroad How We Lived and Died. (Frankfort, KY, Blair Mountain Press 2008)

"Raft Tide and Railroad How We Lived and Died" by Edwina Pendarvis is labeled as memoir although I would tend to call it more of a historiomemoir if creating such a word does not bend the English language too far.  Eddie Pendarvis, as she prefers to be called, and I have been friends for a couple of years and the better I come to know her the better I like her and her work.  She is a retired professor emeritus of the Education Department of Marshall University, an Appalachian author and poet of some note, and the author of numerous books in several fields.  She grew up in several locations in Appalachia including the Left Beaver section of Floyd County Kentucky and Kopperston West Virginia. Several members of her extended family worked in company stores and the coal mines.  

This book covers the history of her family as it immigrated into Pike County Kentucky and then spread out over Appalachia, West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Central Kentucky.  The first several chapters are highly fictionalized which, while it may have been necessary due to poor or no documentation two hundred and more years ago, is a quality I do not like.  There is also some fictionalization in a few of the later chapters but it is of a much more creative and deliberate nature and much more acceptable in the work.  Ms. Pendarvis does an excellent job of researching and documenting the available records, both verbal and written, about her ancestors.  The book will be especially popular with individuals who have spent at least part of their lives in the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia.  It is filled with wonderful stories and vignettes about the family, its many unique members, and the complex lives they lived.  Ms. Pendarvis, as a babe in arms, was present at the murder of her maternal grandmother on the porch of the family home in Pike County.  As a result, her maternal uncle Donald Johnson spent most of his remaining youth in Ms. Pendarvis' home under the care of her mother who was his older, married sister.  He grew up to become rich in the Pike County coal industry and eventually made and lost two fortunes.  He was also the breeder and seller of a Thoroughbred colt who set a world record auction price of $10.2 million dollars at the Keeneland Summer Select Yearling Sale in July of 1983.  In a mildly strange coincidence, I was present in the arena at Keeneland the night that colt sold since I had spent nearly twenty years working in the Thoroughbred industry of Central Kentucky.  

This book is full of wonderful moments which remind the native Appalachian reader of home, the old home place, mother's chicken and dumplings, and of the winter evenings when there was enough fire wood but maybe not enough pinto beans.  It takes us back to our youthful aspirations and memories of little failures we thought we had forgotten.  It is well worth the price of admission.  If you are a native Appalachian, buy it, read it, use it to remember the good times, the bad times, and those hopeful times when you knew in your heart that there were better times a coming. 

Jenny Wiley State Park Is Hosting A Hate Group

Today, I was appalled to read Internet news from WKYT-TV27 in Lexington, KY, and learn that Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg, KY, will be hosting a meeting of the Traditionalist Workers Party, a hate group as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL.  I also confirmed the accuracy of the story by watching the evening news on WKYT-TV27  and by calling the park office to protest the fact that a state park would be hosting a meeting of a hate group.  When I contacted the park office in Prestonsburg, I was told that staff there could not comment on the issue and was given the name and telephone number of Gil Lawson, the information officer and official spokesperson for the KY State Parks in Frankfort, KY.  When I called Mr. Lawson, he would only read the official statement which the parks department had prepared and which is included in the Internet news story from WKYT-TV27.  Here are the contents of that statement: 

""The executed contract for this event was for a family reunion, and the parks department was not notified of the intent of this meeting until late last evening. As a public event, a different contract will be required. The new contract will include safety and other provisions, and the group will have to reapply under the correct process. As a public agency, the Kentucky State Parks cannot discriminate against individuals or groups under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. However, we will continue to monitor the situation and any threats to our guests, and we will take appropriate actions as necessary." Official Statement From The KY State Parks System Downloaded on February 8, 2017, at 8:40pm.

Upon hearing the statement on the telephone, my response to Mr. Lawson was that he was "talking out of both sides of his mouth".  We both graciously allowed the conversation to end on that note.  My logic for that assessment is based on these facts as stated in the statement.  The parks system is attempting to imply, but not clearly state, that they were mislead when negotiating the contract and they may well have been mislead.  At the same time, the parks system is stating they have no intentions to attempt to do the right thing by voiding the contract and refusing to host the event.  The parks system is also attempting to claim they have no legal means by which to refuse to host such a group.  The portion of the statement which says "we will continue to monitor the situation and any threats to our guests, and we will take appropriate actions as necessary".  By virtue of that sentence, they are admitting that possible threats to their guests do exist.  

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Traditionalist Workers Party as:

"...a white nationalist group that advocates for racially pure nations and communities and blames Jews for many of the world’s problems. Even as it claims to oppose racism, saying every race deserves its own lands and culture, the group is intimately allied with neo-Nazi and other hardline racist organizations that espouse unvarnished white supremacist views." Southern Poverty Law Center Downloaded on February 8, 2017, at 8:51pm.

For those of you who do not know the Southern Poverty Law Center, they were founded by Morris Dees, one of the most successful civil rights attorneys in the history of the country, and are located in Montgomery, AL.  They track, confront, and litigate against hate groups all over the country and do a phenomenal job of gaining, protecting, and preserving human rights all over America.  The bottom line is that if the SPLC tells you a group is a hate group you can bet your boots on their assessment.  The Traditionalist Workers Party is described in their own literature as being strongly anti-Semitic and homophobic although they attempt to couch those beliefs in language which can avoid the possibility of constituting hate crimes on its face.  At the same time, they attempt to disguise their supremacist views behind stated intentions of "fighting for faith, family, and folk".  However, it is interesting that on their official website they list their philosophical literature on a web page they have named "Propaganda".  According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary Eleventh Edition, the definition of "Propaganda" is: "information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a cause or political view".  It is fascinating that such a group would use a word to describe their teaching which means "...biased or misleading...". 

In their statement about the goals of the event which is linked from the WKYT-TV27 web site, the Traditionalist Workers Party makes several statements that cause concern.  They state that: " Pike County is 98.35% European and went over 80% for Trump in the recent elections."  It is fascinating that an organization that SPLC has identified as a hate group is choosing to visit and hold a meeting in an area which supported Donald Trump who has always denied his support from and possible connections to such white supremacist hate groups.  They go on to say that Pike County is an area that is "in need of advocacy and organization".  They also gloat that " Given that the venue is a State Park, they cannot shut down the event".  That statement, and the likely fear of state park officials, is probably why the official statement from the KY State Parks is so unwilling to confront the fact that they have agreed to host an event from a hate group.  The TWP go further near the end of their statement by discussing possible "...possible Leftist attacks, we will not be driven from the streets, under any circumstances" which appears to state that they are prepared for violence during their street demonstration in Pikeville on April 29th, 2017.  

Every citizen, every elected official, every church, every legitimate social organization in the Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia area should immediately and unequivocally denounce this group, their proposed event, and their potentially violent agenda.  Every member of such churches, groups, and organizations should immediately contact Gil Lawson and the Kentucky State Parks to protest this event and to demand that it be cancelled.  Potential violence, which is openly discussed in that statement and that is alarming and potentially very dangerous.  Such plans, such groups, and such threats of violence must be confronted and must be stopped.